Name: derives from the legendary Greek musician Orpheus.
English: Sea rose.
Afrikaans: Teringbos, meaning "tuberculosis bush".
Genus: 1 species.
Region: South Africa, western coastal regions of Cape Province.
Habitat: coast; tolerates sandy soil, saline soil, clay; temperate.
Use: ornamental.
BotanyErect subshrub, virgately branched, more or less pubescent, with branches leafy to the apex.
Leaves: opposite, sessile, crowded; fairly thick, slightly leathery; bluntly linear to narrowly cuneate.
Flowers: solitary, or in inflorescences of lax cymes, terminally or in the axils of upper leaves.
Calyx: 5 lobes; loosely round the base of the corolla.
Corolla: tube, short, campanulate, with an annular, crenulate disk inside at the base. The calyx lobes oblong and mucronate, without a dorsal keel. Corolla: vibrant candy pink, or rarely white, contrasting the vivid yellow anthers; tube slightly longer tan the calyx; petals oblong to nearly circular, slightly longer than tube.
Stamens: inserted below mouth of tube; anthers are erect, with a slight spiral twist.
Ovary: single locule; parallel placentation; stigma terminal, peltate.
Fruit: capsule; splits septicidally.